On a scorching morning we relieved our hard working girls of their crop of liquid gold. We've only had them since May but what a great job they've done. After removing the supers we set about extracting. Initial tasting while uncapping is always exciting and the honey is fantastic. We both agreed that there was a hint of citrus about the flavour which we have no idea where it could have come from unless someone has planted a load of orange or lemon trees somewhere near by. I am wagering that we have around 40 pounds and Corinne reckons we have nearer 60. We'll see tomorrow when we weigh it. Don't think we will beat our 2009 crop of 90 pounds!
Our new labels arrived this morning and with the jars that came on Thursday we are all set for jarring. Thoughts turn now to recipes with honey, although not the precious stuff in jars - way too good for cooking. Each year we melt down the wax cappings and the wax floats on top of the liquid honey and after it cools it's really easy to lift off. What you are left with is "cooked" honey which is still very tasty but no longer pure in that the heat changes its character and flavour.
Our honey comes out of the hive, is spun gently in the extractor which has an initial coarse filter to remove the occassion dead bee or bee body part. After we finish we run the honey out of the tank under the extractor through two more filters that take out anything that made it through the first one. After it settles for 24 hours it goes directly into sterilised jars. After adding labels its ready for sale. Hmmmmmm.
Check back in the next couple of days for updates and photos.
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